The Adventures of Babysitting

I babysit every Thursday afternoon for 2 little girls - daughters of some good friends of ours. It's always really fun when they come over because Mady gets all excited. Today she happened to be looking out the window when they pulled in. When she realized that it was the girls, she started shrieking in excitement! Then she ran over to the door awaiting their arrival in the house. The girls love to play together. It's so cute to watch them because they normally follow each other around - it's like a little 3 person train going from room to room.

Today they discovered a couple of fun new adventures...

At one point I hear one of the girls say "Mady is going through all of her drawers." I walk in her bedroom to find one of her dresser drawers emptied all over the floor. No big deal. About 10 minutes later I go back in to check on them, as they were real quiet, and I discover that all but the top drawer was now emptied. The 3 of them were going through all her clothes, having a good ole time! It was so cute. It's a good thing Mady understand "put it back" because we will probably be exhausting that phrase later!

The second adventure has to do with belly buttons. Mady has an obsession with belly buttons as do all kids I'm pretty sure. She loves to lift up our shirts and stick her finger in our belly button - weird, I know, but she thinks it's a riot! Today I spotted all three of the girls in the living room in a circle lifting up each other's shirts and poking at all the belly buttons. I walk over and lo and behold one of them goes for mine..! It was funny to see them so entertained in something as crazy as a belly button. That just goes to show that we parents don't need to spend money on toys for our children!!!!

Random

So, I think I've finally got this blog thing figured out with regards to who has written each post. Let me explain.. We never really looked into figuring out how to "sign" our own posts accordingly. Each one would say "Posted by Mark and Jenn Bettinger" at the bottom of them. So, we would assume that people could figure out by reading which one of us wrote each post. Today I actually took some time to play around and I think I have it figured out now. It should tell you if each post was done by Mark or it I did it. Yay. It only took us how many months to figure that out? The old posts will now say "Mark" because he's the first administrator but if you read them, you'll be able to figure out who really wrote it.

On another note, I can't get rid of this cold! It started over this past weekend with a sore throat and a cough. I've since gotten rid of the sore throat but the cough, runny nose, and sinus problems are driving me insane... especially in the evenings. We've been blessed that Madalyn hasn't gotten sick this time around - actually now that I think about it she's only had 1 small cold ever... Wow! let's hope it stays that way! Anyway, I just feel really tired. Hopefully I can fully kick it soon. I've been hearing that there's a ton of stuff going around :(

This weather has been ridiculous! For those of you that don't live in Illinois, let me enlighten you a little bit to our crazy world! Yesterday afternoon as I was driving back from the store (3:30pm) it was 51 degrees and pouring , I mean torrential downpour! Add in a little bit of thunder and some lighting for effects. Last night at about 6:15pm I ran to the store again and let me just say it was absolutely nasty out! Our door was frozen shut, there was sheet of ice on everything, I slid in the parking lot in the car, it was snowing and there were about 50 mph winds (no exaggeration!) Ridiculous!

Maybe that's why I'm still feeling blah....

A Mad-in-ator Update!

Madalyn is definitely feeling better... better than Monday. I'm not quite sure what happened on Monday but I think that possibly teething played a part in it. She's still not eating as much as she had been eating and she still has times where she's a little whiny - which leads me to think that her gums may be bothering her still. They say that the molars are the worst ones to work on getting in. We've already had one bout with working on her molars so maybe this is round 2?...

Yesterday she decided that she didn't want to sleep at all which wasn't much fun. Considering she sleeps an average of 5-6 just for naps during the day, her not sleeping at all was definitely not good! We both were ready for her bedtime to come around last night.

Bedtime - that reminds me... the silly little squirt has figured out that she can "rock" in her crib and it will move away from the wall (it's on wheels). I haven't paid too much attention to see if I can lock the wheels but she definitely has figured out how to move. It started out with her pushing against the wall with her feet (& kicking!). Now, I caught her red handed standing in her crib, holding on and rocking back and forth. Last night when I checked on her before I went to bed she seriously had to have had the crib out about 3 feet from the wall! Little stinker!

She's also into putting things inside of things lately... emptying baskets and then putting the contents back in, emptying and refilling "her" designated drawers in the kitchen (yes, she has 3 drawers she can play in!), and so on. Well this evening I went to open one of her drawers to get a bag and what did I find.... a pair of her pants!!!! Then I went to get the colander from under the shelf and I found my cell phone charger! I'm starting to get a little nervous.. things might be disappearing slowly from our house!

She surprises me daily on how much she can understand. Yesterday I told her that we needed to get her coat and she went over to the coat closet and tried to reach for the handle. She can identify her hair, ears, and nose and she knows things like socks, shoes, pants, etc. (she can show you where her shoes and socks go also). She knows how to put things back (which is really nice because she thinks cleaning up is fun at her age!) I definitely take advantage of the "let's put it back" phrase. She communicates very well using sign language which has definitely been a positive experience for us all. She just learns so fast! I am just in awe at how well babies really do understand. It's incredible!

Day 3 of Dad being gone is almost over... only 3.5 days left.

Daddy: -- WE MISS YOU! WE CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO COME HOME!!!! LOVE YOU!

Our little reader!

So, today while Madalyn wasn't feeling well, she wanted to be read to a lot throughout the day. You can always tell when she wants you to read to her. It's so cute...! She will grab her preferred book out of her book basket in the living room and walk over to one of us. She'll sign "please" while holding her book until you pick her up. If you're sitting on the floor with your legs stretched out, she'll just walk over to you, turn around, back up until she gets to your lap, and then sit down. It's so cute to watch. When Daddy asks her to come sit with him, he's usually sitting Indian style and she'll go up to him and step into his lap with her book. It just is so stinkin' cute to watch her get up in his lap.

She LOVES books. She spends 90% of her time awake with a book in hand. She of course has her favorite... A Little People tab book where you pull back the tabs to see what's underneath. It's about the Little People going to the zoo so there are a ton of animals which she loves. When she picks up that book we usually both giggle as we've read it to her about 100+ times!

I'm so glad she likes books. I really pray that she'll grow up and continue to love to read. Mark and I both read a lot so she sees that I'm sure. We also have dedicated our Saturday nights to become reading nights. We'll sit in the living room and read and Mady will sit in her rocking chair (or sometimes IN her book basket) and read along with us. I'm so thankful for moments like these that we can enjoy something as simple as reading together as a family!

The first day of adventure with Daddy being gone!

This morning Mark took off for Chicago for a research study that he's going to be doing. He'll be gone 7 days!! I woke up at 5:15am to help him get loaded and off. I then went back to sleep and woke up at 8:15. I didn't hear Madalyn - usually she's up at 7:30. I went in to check on her as I was a little worried and found out that we had a big problem... She had thrown up 2 times and her diaper had also leaked... big time! She was soaked! She immediately was transferred to the sink for a bath!

After she got cleaned up I tried to give her breakfast, which she mostly refused. She only ate maybe 10 bites of oatmeal and she only had about 2 oz of milk. By 9:30 she was ready for bed again so I put her down for a nap and she immediately fell asleep. I had to wake her up again at 12:30pm. Her forehead was extremely warm and she was very "out of it." I took her temp (under arm) and it read 101.6. Considering you're supposed to add a degree when you do it under the arm, I got a little worried and I called a friend of mine who is a nurse. She recommended that I call the dr. just to see what he thought. I put a call into the nurse...

Meanwhile, Mady wasn't interested in eating any solid food for lunch and only took about 2 oz of milk and maybe a half of a cup of water. She was a little whiney and just wanted to be held. She also was very tired and ended up laying back down again at 1:45pm.

The nurse said to just let her body continue to fight off whatever is happening and if I had any further problems to call her back. She said to not worry about solid food and keep her drinking fluids. She woke up from her nap at 3:15 and was awake until bedtime (7:00). She was acting better but still had moments where she wanted to be held and where she was pretty whiney. She wouldn't eat dinner but would drink milk. We sat many minutes today in the chair together rocking and reading books. I just hate it when my little one isn't feeling well. As a mom, I want to do everything I can to help her feel better. All I could do today was pray :)

I went to lay her down and I was praying for her (as Daddy does when he puts her to bed). After our prayer, I sang "I love you, Lord" (which I used to sing to her a lot when she was a newborn - during those middle of the night feedings.) By about the 2nd time through that song I looked down and she was sound asleep in my arms. It melted my heart to be holding a beautiful baby girl. I was overwhelmed with thankfulness! I am blessed to have such a wonderful husband and such a beautiful baby girl!

Back to the craziness - Daddy called to tell her goodnight but she was already asleep. I ended up going up to check on her and when I did I found that she had thrown up again. So, I got her up and let her play with my cell phone (after we called Daddy) while I changed the sheets! That's 2 times in 1 day! I took out all of her animals, books, and blankets that were in her crib so if this happens again during the night, I won't have to watch anything besides the sheet... AGAIN!

I'm praying for my little one to get better.... Bless her little heart!

A Long Week Away

1/21/08 Today began my long week away from the family. I was accepted into a research study conducted through the Cystic Fibrosis Institute in Chicago (for a more in depth explanation on CF, read "Mark's Testimony" found on the left hand side of this page).

We've been getting ready for this week since last September (it will occur again the last week of February for part II). We knew it was coming, but that didn't help our feelings as I pulled out of the driveway this morning, or hugged Madalyn last night when I put her to bed.

The study is quite interesting to me. As many of you know, I take enzymes with every meal to help with vitamin absorption and food digestion. I've been pancreatic deficient my entire life, and I've learned to play the cards that I was dealt. I feel so horrible when I don't take the enzymes that it makes it easy to remember them.

The research study will test a new enzyme pill that is "purer" in form, hence they are looking for improved digestive qualities and the need to take less enzymes (I take 6 with each meal currently - the new medicine will require 1 capsule taken 1/2 through the meal). Part 1 of the study, which I'm doing at Evanston Hospital near Northwestern University will test me with no enzymes for a week (thus setting a baseline), then I will go on the experimental drug for 3 weeks and then go back in the hospital, where they will test the efficacy of the medication. If the medication works, they give me the pills for the next year for free and they will compensate me for my time and mileage driven, as I will return about every 2 months for a check-up.

I did my pre-admission physical this morning, and I get checked in tomorrow morning at 7 am, and will be inpatient until Sunday, when I will be let go. I thought it might be fun to record any funny stories or unique experiences that I'll have in the upcoming week. Different days will be color-coded to make it fun. Today, obviously will be in black.

5:30 Left this morning, and drove to the CFI in Glenview. Got there by 8:15. It was 160 miles one way. Dr Boas (the head of the facility) did a physical and took blood. No biggie, but as a lab consultant, I had many things to share on equipment choice and technique, but I had to hold my tongue. I didn't even mind that he's a Boston Red Sox fan...he was wearing a Garfield tie.

9:30 Done at CFI, called my buddy Brian (a college roomate), and I will be staying with him tonight. He'll be done working around 2ish, we will meet up at the Sears Tower at that time, where he will show me around his office where he works. Will go out to eat tonight somewhere.

9:45 Drove to my office at the U of I Medical Center. No one was there since it was MLK Jr Day. Funny, I don't remember anyone mentioning to me that this was a holiday. At least now I don't have to take 5 days off, only 4. Yeah for me. I saw my supervisor for like 30 seconds. She was interviewing some guy for a billing position. Yes it was awkward. I took off. Found out that I had parked for 21 minutes in the parking lot. Yes, that cost me $3.00. Had my office been open, I could have gotten a free parking pass, or if I would have gotten out of there in less than 15 minutes, it would have been free. Down with Chicago.

10:29 Went to McDonald's to get a sausage/egg/cheese McMuffin. Easily one of my favorite top 5 sandwiches in the world. Evidently my TomTom lead me to a bad McD's. I walked in and got a ton of stares from the TONS of people in there (evidently ALL the people in this particular neighborhood on the west side of Chicago were honoring Martin Luther King Jr, because they were all in no hurry....at all, whatsoever. I don't think many of them worked anyways.) I stood in line for about 10 minutes where I was called "hey brother" from everyone there soliciting money from me, many times. I quietly declined. A Chicago cop walked in right behind me. I felt much better, especially after I noticed the .44 hanging from his belt. He was a very large man. I felt small. And out of place. FINALLY, the line budged and I was pushed through to the front of the line. I kid you not, EXACTLY as I was ordering my precious sandwich and coveted coffee, some nice lady (I'll call her Myrtle for reference) reached up and flipped the overhead signs to the lunch menu. I kindly asked what time they switch, and Myrtle said "10:30." I looked at my watch and it said 10:29. I kindly asked for a #2, and she asked if I wanted a large fry. "No, you don't understand" I replied. I don't want fries, or a burger at flippin' 10:29 in the morning, "I want cream in my coffee." She said that they were on the lunch menu now. I was screaming in my head at this point, and had Earl or Carl or whatever his name was in front of me, made up his mind before the 20th century, I would have qualified for the breakfast menu. Argh. Evidently, with someone as pale as I am, you don't get any sympathy when you were in the neighborhood that I was in. Had the cop not been there, I probably would have gotten mad at Myrtle, or asked for a manager, course had the cop not been there, I may not have had my wallet either... I counted my blessings, and then when I sat down, found out I had to pay for wi-fi at McDonald's. Argh. I left.

11:30 I drove out to Oak Park where I used to live when I did my internship up here. Found my old stomping grounds (Caribou Coffee) and noticed that there was a new Borders across the street. I was like, "sweet, Borders has wi-fi for my laptop." I crossed the street to find out that I had to pay for wi-fi there too. Oh well. I found an awesome book on the power of persuasive sales technique and read for a couple of hours. I also realized when I walked into Borders that ALL the alarms went off when I walked in the doors. Evidently, something in my computer bag signaled a stolen item or something. No one really cared, since I was walking in. As I got up from reading, a horrible, dreading feeling swept over me. How do I get out? I searched through my bag and found the culprits. I had seasons 1,2 and 3 of The Office and Rudy. Drat, how do I do this, Borders sells movies? Hmm. I hadn't opened Season 1 of The Office yet, so I opened that, and I left the packaging on Rudy, since it clearly stated that it came from Wal-Mart (all of them were Christmas gifts, and I planned on watching them this upcoming week). I put them back in my bag and came up with a well devised plan. I calmly walked up to the counter and explained the situation. I told the guy that if I walk out, all the alarms will go off because of something in my computer bag, and is it ok if I just keep going? (Sounds a little suspect if you ask me, but honesty never hurts). He looked at me with that "inquisitive, what they crap are you talking about, look" and shook his head. Sure enough, about 3 inches from the exit, my ear drums rattled with the alarms, I calmly looked at him, waved, and he allowed me to exit. I quickly crossed the street to Starbucks (they can take away my sausage, egg and cheese sandwich, but I refuse to let them have my "Office" seasons!)

2:15 Walked across the street to Starbucks (where they are KNOWN for their wi-fi). They didn't have any connections either (at least this time I didn't buy any coffee like I did at Borders). I was able to log in to the "Caribou Coffee" wi-fi across the street. I knew I liked them better than all the rest!

3:00 Caught up with Brian at the Sears Tower. Parking cost $10.00 for parking, but what they hey, right? He took me up to his office on the 68th floor. It was awesome! Oh my goodness. He told me that it gets old after awhile. At least he HAS a window in his office...

For the rest of the evening, we bummed around down town, had a soda at this cool retro bowling alley/pool hall type ordeal. It sounds stupid, but it was awesome. Of course, I announced to everyone that I was married, not to the man sitting with me. (It is weird for two guys to go to something like this together evidently. I was trying to preserve my testimony...I didn't want to get hit on by some guy named Luscious.) We ate italian at La Bocca. Again, it was delicious. I took him to a couple of stores, and we did some shopping, then went back to his place and watched the Bourne Ultimatum on his big screen with surround sound. In bed by 11:00...my stomache is going berzerks...

Tuesday 1/22/08 1:00, 2:30, 4:30, 6:00, 6:05, 6:16 am The affects of not taking medication hit me like a mack truck on a Coke can last night. I won't go into the details, except that I was exhausted when the alarm went off at 6:00. I got ready and jammed out at 6:20. Tommy TomTom said that it was 10.6 miles to Evanston Hospital and would take 25 minutes. Bologna. It snowed about 3 inches last night, which means only one thing in Chicago: people drive 3 MPH. I was going crazy in my car. At 6:50, I still had 8 miles to go. Things started clearing up by 7, and I got here at 7:30. The other guy that's doing the study with me (we'll call him and his wife "D" and "K" - she's staying with him all week) didn't get here till 7:35, so I felt better about that. I made it up to my floor, and found out that they didn't preregister me, so I was at a standstill for about 30 minutes. Very, very hungry at this point, as I had to fast. Argh. They also found out that I had not brought all my meds with me that's on my list. I didn't bring them because I don't take them, they aren't necessary. They made a hissy fit about it. My body, my rules. Then we started the dreaded 3 hour starch test...

This was not fun. at 9:45, they put in 2 IVs (the first one blew) and they took blood, and then they had me eat 4 1/2 slices of bread (150 grams of carbs) in one minute with a glass of water to wash it down. Then, they take blood every 15 minutes for the next 3 hours to see how my body processes starch and turns it into sugar. I don't know but by 12:45, I hadn't eaten anything but the bread, and I was grouchy at the world, plus the affects of not taking enzymes (and eating italian) was full-time now.

The other event so far was getting internet connectivity. I brought the lap top with me, but there weren't any wi-fi connections that would let me on. They gave me this wi-fi card, but come to find out, the subscription has expired now, so it wouldn't let me log in either. They have a kiddie room at the end of the hall with connectivity, but I need my computer to log in to the the mainfraim at the UofI to check my work email. Found a business center in the hospital, but it requires a patch cable. Argh. I tried to disconnect the cable from the existing computer, but found out it was secured onto the computer case (evidently, other people have tried this before). I boldly went to the concierge for a last ditch effort. She was like, "oh yah, we have those." She asked for ID. I let her see my patient wrist band. She shook her head, but let me have it. That's where I'm at now. I think I'm going to go get some more food and soda, since after today, I'm on a very restricted pre-planned diet and I can't eat any more or less than what they give me. From the looks of it, I think I'm going to be hungry...

7:00 Watched "American Idol" with D & K. It was fun. Read for a bit and went to sleep around 9:00.

Wednesday 1/23/08 9:35 am Oh my goodness, what a night. I only slept about 6 hours last night. Was up a couple of times using the facilities designated for a domestic cause. Woke up at around 3:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Read for a couple of hours (catching up on reading through the Bible. I'm supposed to be through Numbers by Saturday night and I'm only finishing up Exodus now.) I took a shower around 6:30. That felt REALLY good, except that 1/2 of the streams that came out were hot and 1/2 were cold. That wasn't pleasant. I've been getting a number of phone calls from work this morning, so that's been keeping me busy. I've been getting so many calls actually that I don't think I will take today off either. It's been crazy. All kinds of emails to follow up on with work too.

Got an interesting phone call last night before I went to bed. A buddy of mine in Chicago called me about a new business opportunity (an investment club). I'm really interested in it. Essentially, you team up with other investors to help start up companies or projects, and then you split the profits. There's referral opportunities if you bring in other investors, so that sounds nice. There's a WebEx on it tonight that I will dial into. More details as further posts warrant.

I've been emailing Jenn and calling her and Mady frequently. I miss them both terribly. Mady now fondly calls me "dad-E." It warms my heart. I love it. I have a scrap book with me that Jenn made for my birthday with pictures of her and Madalyn in it. I've looked at it many times.

Come to find out D & K like history, and they brought the boxed set of "Band of Brothers" and we are going to do a marathon. I'm stoked about it. I read B of B a couple of years ago, and I watched the series before I met Jenn, so it will be fun to go through it again. I'm a huge WWII buff. Read all kinds of books on the subject.

So, I got my first meal this morning while on the "restricted diet." The nice dietician brought in my tray and sat it down. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I felt like I was in the 4th grade again. It's all very exact. She said I had to eat it all. I looked at her and asked if this is the primer, when does breakfast arrive? She replied that this was breakfast. Ok, let me explain, I'm 185 pounds and eat like a famished refugee...every meal. Here's what I am allotted:

2 egg beaters, 2 pieces of toast, 2 sausage links, 1/2 a cup of OJ, a jelly packet and a butter packet.

I made the whole thing into a sandwich and at it all in 4 bites. I've never had a meal where I was MORE hungry after I ate than before. I went to the nurses station and calmly told them I was hypoglycemic, and need a little more nourishment. They stated that I could have grapes and pretzels, which are found in the fridge. I'll lose weight while I'm in the hospital...that'll show 'em.

I can't wait till lunch. The problem is, is that it's 4 hours away...

The afternoon went fine. I am reading lots of books. I finished "The Christian Husband" by Bob Lepine. It was good. I'm trying to finish "The Last Christian Generation" by Josh McDowell. Next on my list will be to finish "Boundaries" by Drs Cloud and Townsend (do you see a theme here?) I ended up throwing away "The Big Bad Wolfe" by James Patterson. It wasn't edifying.

Watched American Idol with D & K at 7:00. Went to bed around 9:00...supposed to be -20 below with wind chill tonight.

Thursday 1/24/08 10:05. Had a great night's sleep last night. Woke up around 6:00 this morning and had some good time to read through Exodus. I'm close to finishing Exodus now. Need to be through Numbers by Saturday night. It will be close. We'll see what happens.

Dr. Boas came in this morning. Wanted to know how I was doing. I passed the blue dye caps last night, so I'm officially starting the study now. He asked how everything was moving along. I said I'm starting to get a little stopped up. He was concerned about blockage, and told me to keep an eye on it. I really like him...he had a Calvin and Hobbes tie on this morning.

Got some work done this morning, so I feel like I've accomplished something fruitful. I miss Jenn a lot. Madalyn just as much. Things are getting pretty mundane. I'm pretty much ready to go home. I'm tired of being hungry with an upset stomach, and I found out I've lost 3 pounds since I've been in the hospital. Down to 182. My lungs are actually doing better now than when I was at home. The extra rest I'm sure is helping, plus I haven't been leaving the house at 6:00 am, so I've been able to do all my meds and treatments faithfully, so that in itself has been a blessing. We'll see how today goes.

Found out that there is a new John Grisham book coming out next week. I'm stoked! I've read every single one of his books...It's called "The Appeal" and comes out Jan 29th.

1:00 Watched an old sports classic, "Rudy" today. Good stuff. Took my first nap of the week this afternoon. Haven't been able to sleep during the day much. Lots of phone calls from work, intruding nurses and cleaning ladies. Slept about 2 hours.

8:00 Watched the republican presidential debate tonight. D from next door came over. We masked up and talked politics. I found the debate very interesting. At this point, I'm leaning towards Romney or Huckabee. Romney had a great debate. There are a few issues with all of the candidates. I won't get political at this point, but I've been following him for about 6 months now and so far, he's got my vote. We'll see.

Finished up Exodus and started reading Leviticus.

Friday 1/25/08 9:55 am. I'm really missing home. It's getting pretty old. Dr Boas came in and chatted with me for about 20 minutes this morning. We talked about his research and being a clinician. He likes the research aspect and knew some of the investigators at Johns Hopkins that I worked with. Very interesting. We talked about his ambitions and his heart. He is really down to earth. If his clinic was closer to home (it's 160 miles away), I might consider switching, but I'm happy at the CF clinic at Carle.

Called Jenn this morning. Jenn is going down to her folks today. She's going to get her hair cut and hang out. I'm glad she is as it will give her opportunity to unplug from Madalyn for a bit. Mady will be at the house hanging out waiting for Jenn to get back. Um, she will be at her folks house with her mom. Just clarifying. I think they are both getting pretty restless and are ready for me to come home.

Nothing else to really report so far. Just counting down the hours at this point.

Got a number of calls for work today, let them go to voicemail, I didn't feel like dealing with issues, besides, I was supposed to be on vacation this week. I will follow up with them on Monday.

Saturday 1/26/08 10:55 I woke up at 6:45 this morning, which was great. I went to bed about 10:30 last night. Only one more day to go!

Dr Boas came in this morning and we chatted for almost a half an hour. He told me that my serum vitamins A, D and E are very low. He was concerned and we talked about some treatment protocols to protect my immune function, sight and bone density levels. He would like me to get a bone density scan to make sure that I'm not getting bone lose. We also talked about other medications and cutting edge research that are out there that I might want to investigate for my treatments. We also talked about the big winter seminar coming up in a couple of weeks. Found out that I have to come up to Chicago on that day anyways, so I don't really have any excuse! Now, if I can find a way to not have to pay the $100 entrance fee for Jenn and I to go, things will be even better!

I got my second round of blue dye caps this morning at 9:30. Now that we have taken them, D and I can eat whatever we want! It is a glorious day! My first meal was a belgian waffle (with LOTS of syrup), bacon X2, fruit loops, 2 boxes of milk and a 2 containers of OJ. I'm stuffed...and happy.

I finished Leviticus this morning, and now I'm moving on to Numbers. One day at a time, you know. Saw some awesome things towards the end of Leviticus regarding the "holiness that God gives us." I will write about it when I have time to update my summary of each book that I'm reading on our reading through the Bible in 2008 blog.

Jenn ended up going down to her folks yesterday and spent the night. Got to talk to Mady a few times on the phone recently. I sure do miss them both. The research nurse, Mindy is supposed to be coming by tonight with the study drug for me to start tomorrow. Dr Boas assured me that he would come in early tomorrow so that D & K and I can go home. Trust me the car will be packed and I will have my coat on when he walks in the room to discharge us...

Sunday 1/27/08 1:30 pm Got home from the hospital. Dr Boas didn't come in until around 11:00 this morning. He got tied up early in the day. It was so good to see Jenn and Madalyn again. Oh, home sweet home. Now the only problem is, is that the study drug doesn't seem to be working real well...I don't think it's a high enough dosage, I'm cramping...

Spaghetti Fun

Two days ago we had spaghetti for dinner and we gave Madalyn some too. Normally I give her plain spaghetti noodles without any sauce so this was about to be an adventure. I must say that she LOVED the spaghetti. As fast as I could put it on her plate she was shoveling it in. And then, of course, came the rubbing of the eyes which just pushed sauce all over her face. She's into giving kisses right now and I guess she was in the mood that night to give them to Daddy (She'll lean over and open her little mouth wide and go in for a kiss!) Daddy loved the kisses...especially since they were covered in spaghetti sauce!!! It was fun to watch. She definitely ate more than I did. We had to end up giving her a bath afterwards because she was such a mess! Here are a couple of pictures for your enjoyment. Check our photo site for more...

My New Toy!!!

This is my new toy! A Toshiba Satellite laptop. I finally got one that I love!

Here's the story behind this....

I had been saving up money for a while to purchase my own laptop. Mark has his laptop from work that I use but when he goes out on the road he takes it with him so I then reverted back to using my desktop. I just wanted to have something more portable as I'm not downstairs a lot during the day (where our desktop was). After Christmas I had enough money to start browsing for one I liked. I looked on Craigslist (a great site!) first and found a couple of them about 30 minutes from here. They were brand new and in my price range. Then Mark and I looked on Ebay for a bit! We ended up bidding on a used Dell. It was only 9 months old and it looked really good. We ended up winning the Dell. After a week and a half, it finally arrived and I had a bad feeling as I was opening it. It was a little scratched on the outside but that didn't bother me as much as what I found on the screen -- a few gouges, a scratch, and in the corner it looked like the screen was going out. I was not happy and so I send it back to the guy yesterday. I got back online last night and looked at the ones that I had previously looked at on Craigslist. I contacted the lady and I met her in town this afternoon to pick up my new laptop. I love it!

**if you're looking for a good, well priced laptop, I can send you the contact information for the lady I bought mine from. I would highly recommend her!

Grandma Goes Orange!!!!

Yesterday I took my Grandma to her first ever Illini Basketball Game. Mark and I actually have season tickets this year so I'd been telling her that I was going to take her. It worked out that she was able to come to the game with me yesterday against Penn State.

Let me start off by saying she is the BIGGEST Illini fan ever! I never really followed college basketball until Mark and I met. He loves all sports and so I started watching basketball. We went to a game the year before the Illini got really good and I loved it. Just being in the environment of Assembly Hall during a game is indescribable. Of course the next year, the Illini were absolutely awesome. I can remember calling my Grandma during every game talking about how the game was going and how they were playing. She loved Dee Brown (she always called him "brownie"). During the Final Four game Mark and I bought her an orange t-shirt and drove down to watch the game with her. She was so excited. She had her Orange cheer sign in tow and she was a hoopin' and a hollerin' for them to win! The year after Deron Williams and Dee Brown left, Grandma made Mark and I an Illini scrapbook. She cut all articles about the basketball team out of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook for us (she's 84 years old!) and she did a wonderful job! I'll treasure it always!

Anyway, back to my story...

So as you can tell she is a HUGE fan! I was so excited to be able to take her! She came all decked out in her orange shirt and her orange beads (yep, Grandma had beads on - so cute!). She really had a great time. She was clapping with the music, clapping for them when they did good and even boo-ing when the rest of the crowd boo-ed for bad calls! I think I even heard a "ya-hoo" in there! It was just really fun to see her get so excited! Even though they lost, I know she had a wonderful time. Grandma continues to tell me how she can't even explain how much fun it was! She said it was indescribable... the environment with all of the people and all of the orange! I'm glad I got to be part of that experience with her and share in that fun!!!

Jenn says "Bye Bye Zune!"

So, as many of you know I can often be found searching through the website -Craigslist.com- looking for deals. It's alot like Ebay except that you can pick what city you would like to search for postings. I always look through the Champaign-Urbana postings so that it's all local and I don't have to deal with shipping costs.

After Christmas I found a 30GB Pink Zune MP3 Player on there for $100.00. I thought this was a good deal as I found them online for $200+. We made a trip to Rantoul to pick it up and I was so happy. It had never been used - still had the protective covering over the screen to prevent scratches from appearing. I do have an MP3 player already but it's only a 2GB. So I mostly wanted this for the size (30GB) and because it played video and stored pictures. It just seemed really cool (Plus! it was PINK!!!! - I'm obsessed with Pink). (the one I bought was the one on the far left!)
I brought it home and started to charge it. That's when I ran into all kinds of problems. I hated the software program that it came with - plus, it had no detailed instruction book (which I love). The program was hard to navigate and at some points it would just lock up and I couldn't get it to work. Also I was having trouble getting the Zune to recognize music that I had already downloaded from other websites. Ugh. This was no good as I have a TON of music that I've gotten off of other sites. I started to research online about this particular MP3 Player and started coming across all kinds of negative feedback about them. I was beginning to think this way also. Too much work to figure out. I just wanted something I could drag my music on and it would play (my current player, although small, was easy to load music on).

After a couple of days of debating I decided to list it on Ebay. I didn't want to waste any more hours trying to figure it out. I started the auction at $109.00 with $8.98 shipping and handling. I had seen a couple of them going for $180.00 so I was curious as to what would happen. Last night when we went to bed it was at $150.00. This morning when we got home from church the auction was at $168.25. It had 15 minutes left. Mark and I kept refreshing the page and at 15 seconds till the end of the auction, the price went up to $173.39!!! That's not too bad - a $73.39 profit!

I am using my current MP3 player now and am happy with it. I may try and IPod and I may not - haven't put too much thought into it. I do like my current player as it is small in size so I can stick it in my pocket while running. The Zune was pretty big and bulky!

Endeavoring No More

We have had such a great New Year. I finally got back to work this week after 11 days off. It's been a little hectic getting back into gear again. I got an email yesterday from the head of my department stating that she had submitted the paperwork for my promotion onto the sales team. I was pretty excited about that. I told them that I wasn't going to do both consulting and sales. If I did that, I would be pulling "the rest" of my hair out.The timetable will be interesting. The university system doesn't exactly move along very quickly. That's an understatement...

We had some friends staying with us for a couple of days this week. I've known them for quite some time now. I lived with them when I was in college. They came into town after being in Atlanta, Georgia for the New Year, and it was really good to see them. Yesterday, they had some free time and I was working from home, so I let his wife and kids borrow our truck to have some free time, and that's when I got "the call."

"Mark, I was in an accident."

It was almost surreal. It took me about a second to comprehend the situation. I wasn't upset at all, knowing immediately that everything would turn out ok. None of the 4 passengers were injured, which is ultimately all that matters. The truck got thumped pretty good though. It happened after an improper turn. Unfortunately, it was her fault. And, I found out since we are the owner's of the vehicle, it will go against our insurance, not hers, and it will dink my premium rate. Funny thing is, I've never been in an accident...evidently now I have, and I wasn't even in the vehicle...

For what it's worth, we have a really cool rental car now. We drove it to the Illinois - Ohio State basketball game last night (we have season tickets). Yes, Illinois lost. It's a 2007 Dodge Magnum. Most of the time, when I think of a station wagon, I think of my mom and dad when I was growing up or granny or something. Since our 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor is an SUV, they wanted to give us something comparable, but Enterprise Rent-a-car didn't have any SUVs on the lot at the time, so they bumped us up to a premium car for no extra cost (thank goodness that we have rental insurance on our policy, the car costs about 40.00$ a day otherwise). The nice thing is is that we have unlimited mileage, so we don't have to worry about that issue. It's pretty swank on the inside and I personally think they look sexy.

So, the estimator is coming from Country Insurance to take a look at our truck today. We didn't have to tow it to our house (the accident was only about a mile away). I feel more comfortable getting it towed to the auto body shop now that I've looked at it better. I'm interested to see how much it's going to cost to get repaired. Maybe it will be totaled, and we'll get a new vehicle...

12:30 pm... Well, Neal Williams, an adjuster from Country Insurance just left. Our vehicle wasn't totaled...it looks like it's only $3100 worth of damage.

1/21/2008 2:00 pm... Jenn got a call this morning from Gallo-Miller, our auto body shop, and they said that they found another $600 worth of damage...that ups the total to $3700 total...and another couple of weeks to fix our vehicle. On another note, I'm glad that we had rental insurance. Our current rental vehicle would have cost us $42.00 a day, as of right now, that would have been over $700. By the time we are done, certainly it would have cost us over $1000.